A block away from the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Wednesday morning, a once-overlooked Dodgers star embraced his own newfound notoriety.
Four days after slugging the game-winning home run in Game 7 of the World Series, Will Smith was serenaded by hundreds of fans at a Raising Cane’s promotional event at the intersection of Sunset and Highland, taking a makeshift stage to chants of “We want Will!” from a crowd of Dodgers faithful forever indebted to his championship-clinching swing.
“To feel the love from all the fans, it’s just cool,” Smith said. “It’s fun celebrating with these people, to see what the Dodgers mean to them.”
For years, Smith has largely felt that love from the shadows of the Dodgers’ star-studded roster — a three-time All-Star, a generational talent at his position, but also an outshined member of the team’s big-name core.
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That officially changed this week, after he hit the first game-winning, extra-inning home run in the seventh game of a Fall Classic.
His name has now joined the realm of October legends. His place in Dodger history, elevated to virtually immortal status.
“That’s crazy,” Smith said, when informed Wednesday of the history his 11th-inning swing made. “I never would have thought that [would happen]. But yeah, just glad I was able to get it done for the guys, and for the city … The passion that these fans have, that’s what motivates me most.”
That kind of answer, of course, exemplifies Smith’s default mode. Quiet and reserved by nature. Averse to the public spotlight. Happy to simply show up at the ballpark, handle his taxing job as the starting catcher on baseball’s best team, and sidestep the attention a player of his talent would typically command.
Such had been the reality of Smith’s existence with these Dodgers. Sharing a clubhouse with Shohei Ohtani, Mookie Betts, Freddie Freeman and Clayton Kershaw, it’s been easy for him to blend into the background for much of his seven-year career.
But then, last Saturday night, Shane Bieber hung him a slider in a tied game with a World Series on the line. Smith put a thunderous swing on it, pleading for the ball to clear the fence. And once it did, his standing in the sport had instantly been altered. The Dodgers cemented a dynasty. He was the face of one of its most defining moments.
“Yes and no,” Smith said when asked if it felt like his life had changed this week. “That’s a moment that will always be special. A very positive memory. In the first couple [World Series], had some big hits and stuff. But the game-winner is cool. So hopefully next year, going for a three-peat, we do something similar.”
Nothing, of course, will be as transformational as this past week was for the 30-year-old backstop.
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Had it not been for the heroic efforts of Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Smith very easily could have won World Series MVP, having led the Dodgers with six RBIs, trailed only Ohtani with a .267 average, and caught all 74 innings of the marathon series in another Fall Classic record.
He wasn’t coaxed into speaking at the team’s championship parade, but still received some of the day’s loudest ovations, the fan base recognizing the herculean contributions he provided both at and behind the plate.
“He was the silent assassin,” Freeman said.
“He’s an absolute animal,” third baseman Max Muncy echoed.
Smith did show some of his dry humor during a Tuesday night appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”, reeling off a few laugh lines alongside manager Dave Roberts and a few other teammates.
Then, on Wednesday morning, he got his hero’s welcome at the Raising Cane’s event, with fans lining up along Sunset two hours before his appearance with signs and posters ready in hand.
“It’s felt like a dream,” Smith said.
One he won’t be waking up from anytime soon.
Moving forward, Smith figures to be at the center of the team’s future success, having signed a 10-year, $140 million contract extension with the Dodgers in March 2024.
“This is pretty much home now for us,” the Louisville native and father of two said. “We love it here.”
As one of the younger members of the club’s All-Star core, his importance to the lineup will also continue to grow, with Smith trying to build off a 2025 campaign in which he set full-season career-highs in batting average (.296) and OPS (.901) despite missing most of September, and the first week of the playoffs, with a broken hand.
“To me, he kind of epitomizes a lot of the success that we've had looking back, in terms of our scouting process, our player development process, how well they work together, and then him coming through and having the impact he's had at the Major League level,” president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman said of Smith, who was originally a first-round draft pick of the team in 2016.
“Make no mistake, there's going to be a lot of those moments for him,” Muncy added. “He’s going to be here for a long time. I’m exciting to see what he’s going to do for this organization.”
And to think, how disastrously different this week could have been if not for the other key play Smith made in Game 7, getting his toe back on home plate after it had popped off as he went to catch a throw from Miguel Rojas with the bases loaded in bottom of the ninth inning.
“I still don’t like seeing it,” Smith joked as the video of that moment replayed on Kimmel. “They were replaying it [in the stadium], and I was like, ‘Oh crap, this is not good. We’re gonna lose right here because I can’t hold home plate with my foot.’”
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“That,” Smith added as Kimmel pondered the alternative reality, “would’ve stung.”
Instead, two innings later, Smith delivered a swing that will change his legacy forever — thrusting him onto a pedestal both overdue and long-warranted.
“For me, I’ve always tried not to do too much,” he said. “Just happened to get it in the air, get it over the wall.”
Another modest answer, from a player unlikely to go overlooked again.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
